|
America's Test Kitchen is a real 2,500 square foot test kitchen located just outside of Boston that is home to more than three dozen full-time cooks and product testers. Our mission is simple: to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods. To do this, we test each recipe 30, 40, sometimes as many as 70 times, until we arrive at the combination of ingredients, technique, temperature, cooking time, and equipment that yields the best, most foolproof recipe. America’s Test Kitchen's online cooking school is based on nearly 20 years of test kitchen work in our own facility, on the recipes created for Cook's Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines, and on our two public television cooking shows. Despite the cozy image conjured by the name, few people actually make home fries at home, probably because the dish calls for more time, elbow grease, and stovetop space than most cooks care to devote. We wanted nicely crisped home fries with tender interiors that would serve six to eight hungry people—and wouldn’t chain the cook to the stove for an hour. Because if you’re making a beautiful batch of perfectly scrambled eggs, you probably need some equally good potatoes to go alongside. Since time was a priority, we decided to parcook the spuds before roasting them in the oven. Parcooking would dramatically cut down on roasting time, while finishing them in the oven would allow us to make a big batch. But parcooking was tricky. In order for the potatoes to stay moist on the inside while they browned on the outside in the oven, we’d have to parboil them until the outsides were blown out and starchy—but the middles were still completely raw. In short, we needed a method for making really bad boiled potatoes. The solution was just the right amount of alkaline baking soda, which produced floury outsides and uncooked insides. Two more small changes also helped: starting the potatoes in boiling water and tossing the drained spuds with salt (which roughed up their edges, leading to better browning). The final challenge was incorporating onions into our home fries. We found something that worked perfectly: placing oiled and salted onions in the center of the potato-filled baking sheet partway through cooking and then mixing the two components together after a few more minutes of cooking.
Home Fries Ingredients: 3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes * Baking soda provides an alkaline environment so the exterior of the potatoes soften quicker. The result is a more crisp crust. Instructions: 1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. More from America's Test Kitchen: Previously: |
  Recent Posts
Visit Eatocracy’s new home Recent comments
Pinterest  |
 |
|
Tasty recipe, Looking forward to trying it out. Stefano htt://eatmeimitalian.com
Reblogged this on imvishaldubey.
Can't beat this type of home cooking.
https://theeighthours.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/home-made-spinach-ricotta-gnocchi/
Reblogged this on LurkMoarDreads and commented:
What a great starting point of a recipe!
I love home fries! Can't wait to try the baking soda trick!
Reblogged this on Welcome To The Donkey Blog!.
Best fries are the ones I get for free with foodstamps
My God these people take something as simple and wonderful as home fries, and complicate the devil out of it. It doesn't need to be this complicated to get the same results - crunchy, crispy exterior, creamy center. Home cooks have been doing it for decades. It is a whole bunch simpler than this recipe with its 21 steps to basic home fries with onions makes it out to be.
KISS!
That'll work. You can also use melted butter or duck/goose fat or lard or whatever fat you wish. If you want a bit more crusty exterior, toss the diced potatoes with some instant four (i.e., Wondra) before the oil.
Geez you don't have to go to all that trouble for home fries.
Seriously! Chop, place on cookie sheet, drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake. Do similar with asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts. I don't do complicated.
When it said "kosher salt", I knew this article is one big joke.
The cleaners called. Your brown shirts are ready.
9/11 was staged by the US government, and we are worrying about potatos.
try to stay on topic!
It seemed like every step he was adding salt. I'd think that much salt would not be good for you. I do like roasted potatoes like this though.
Too often these test kitchen "best recipe" things should be titled "How to make simple dishes difficult." Home fries are meant to be a stovetop or griddle dish, often using leftovers. There is no way a sensible person would go through all this for such a simple side dish.
Fried taters are better. You cut them thin, then dab with a towel to get a bit of the moisture off. It's a precise game after that to get the moisture to cook off before they overcook. You won't get a good brown until the moisture's gone and it's easy to overcook them into mush before that happens so it'll take some practice. No pre-boiling. Just who do you think is going to wash all those dishes? Fry them in the widest pan you can heat evenly and in oil, lard or bacon fat. Cast iron works best. Get it as hot as you can without burning your oil. Heat the oil, then add the potatoes. Smaller batches do better, especially for that first batch, but your family will eat them all before you can step away from the stove if you don't do a big batch. Put them on a paper towel. Salt.
I used to like these folks for their methodical almost scientific trial and error and testing of approaches. This is not one of their better productions. I had a close friend who ran a small breakfast/lunch old school diner type place in Queens NY and I would spell him on the grill Sunday mornings so he could accompany his wife to their church. We would convert about 40 lbs of potatoes and 20 lbs of onions and other ingredients to home fries every morning and became famous– at least in our neighborhood –for them and though ownership has changed hands the recipe used is still unchanged 30 years later. In contrast the recipe described here, would turn out bland, single dimensional home fries that after one bite and a grimace would get slathered with hot sauce and ketchup and then never re-ordered. We had parsley, garlic, and paprika and got the crust by slow frying on the grill with lots of butter. Vegetable oil on potatoes? Right, I can just see these guys spooning soybean oil onto their baked russet or mashed potatoes. Yum yum. not.
"...wouldn’t chain the cook to the stove for an hour." Well, when you add it all up, the cooking time for this recipe is just about...an hour. I guess they think the time spent waiting on the fries in the oven doesn't count. If I were a novice cook, it would be recipes like this that would make me give up.
Useless troll. Move along folks.
Simple:
Peel potatoes, cut in chunks of desired size.
Boil. Until tender
Drain,.
Fry in bacon grease, butter, and or oil. Turn occasionally, until outside is golden brown
Sprinkle with popcorn salt, serve.
Why season if they're already perfect? No onions, no garlic, no paprika. And no skins– lazy!
Too much "Alton Brown Factor". Home fries are simple. How simple?
This simple:
1) peel and dice potatoes
2) dice onions and mince garlic
3) add bacon fat and butter to heavy skillet, over medium heat, add onions and garlic, cook to translucent
4) toss in potatoes, stir until well coated, salt and pepper to taste
5) throw the whole skillet in a preheated 325 degree oven, stir every so often until done
Simple. I've long since retired from the professional kitchen, but I've adapted to the home kitchen in order to feed my two teenagers. And yes, they eat a LOT. :-)
My father owned a luncheonette for 30 years. The "secret" is one thing only... BACON FAT. Cook your bacon before you make the home fries and then use the freshly rendered fat from the bacon (do not burn the bacon or he fat is ruined) to make the home fries... Enough said....
Brian,
You've got it. I usually cook 6 strips of bacon in a pan, eat the bacon. I "roast" the whole unpeeled potatoes first in the microwave, thinly slice an onion, saute the onion in the bacon grease with coarsely milled pepper for a bit, slice the potatoes, mix in with the onions, add more coarse milled pepper, sea salt, cayenne pepper and a touch of roasted Spanish chili pepper and garlic, mash it all down and let it fry until brown at the bottom, then flip and let the other side fry. If I need more fat, I add duck fat! Can't go wrong!
Not enough said. There are many techniques to achieve a result. No single technique is best for everyone.
...correct
(...none of the suggestions above are of much value, in my opinion...certainly not the test kitchen recipe...)
Don't waste your time! Do this:
1) Wash and place potatoes in microwave, full power, for 5-7 minutes
2) Remove and cut into squares
3) Fry in a pan with oil! (peanut oil is best)
4) Salt after removing
This recipe is a joke, right? Rube Goldberg would love this one. Here's my recipe: dice 1 onion and saute in butter, peal 3 potatoes, dice and fry in the butter/onion mix, salt & pepper to taste. See how easy it is?
*peel*
spelln's not my four tay.
I'll say it olive oil...........................
To the chef who made this thesis on the creation of home fries-Are you nuts or just plain high?
What the heck is a dutch oven? I have only hear it in reference to shoving someone's head under the covers and farting...lol
You're on a food blog yet you don't know what a dutch oven is?
Don't be a d!ck. You were new to cooking once, too, kettle.
1) Cut up potatoes and leave the skin on.
2) Put 'em in a pot of water, crank the heat, and boil for about seven minutes or so. Drain.
3) Melt some butter and olive oil in a skillet. Add potatoes.
4) Cook until they're as crispy as you want on the outside.
5) Eat
Once you've done them once or twice and know how long they take to cook to your liking, you can add onions, peppers, whatever you want into the skillet while the potatoes cook. If you add them too soon they'll burn. Add too late and they won't be cooked.
I owned a breakfast diner and went through over 50 lbs of potatoes every day. Start with russets cooked skin on until the skin starts to split, cool under cold water and refrigerate overnight. Peel and chop,grill with bacon fat and minced onion,salt and pepper.
but how do you do the initial "cook"? boil? bake?
Demaris -Sorry,boil then cool in cold water.
exactly... and bacon fat is the key
Using bacon fat is cheating. :-) Everything tastes better with bacon.
Professional chef here, this is the correct way to make home fries! The potatoes must be cooked the day before and refrigerated overnight and bacon fat is the key ingredient.
Of course you are a professional chef, it's the internet after all. (Spoiler alert: a professional chef would bill him/herself as 'certified'. Professionals go through a certification process until they reach the title of Chef de Cuisine)
Sounds good, lots of steps, a little too much salt for my taste, and for people with high blood pressure, although, it might not hurt to add less salt to the recipe.
....yeah but what do you do with all of the food that you test???..is it wasted or does it go to some form of use ...with so many food show now ...what happens to all that food ...talk about waste ....
The only people who don't waste food are the disgustingly morbidly obese. They'll cram any and everything into their gaping maws.
I'm thinking someone did not hugged enough as a child...
I'm guessing someone misses daddy's d!ck.
I'm guessing that you're 500 pounds, and bedridden as you typed that.
I don't know about the Test Kitchen, but I know some of the cooking shows end up letting the production team eat the food they make.
Oooo, I want a job on a production team for a cooking show (as long as I can pick the show... I mean, some of the ingredients they have to use on "Chopped" are pretty iffy!)
I love Americas Test Kitchen overall but I've noticed that a lot of posters seem to not like the way the steps for the recipes are listed here on Eatocracy.
I assume every little step is broken out to try and simplify the recipe for novice cooks. But I think it's affecting people's perception as it being too long or complicated of a recipe just because of the format. If you take all the numbered steps out of the recipe above it's fairly short (would fit on a traditional recipe card easily).
Yes, each step in the recipe above in most cookbooks would double or triple up, and look shorter and less complicated, But as you mention, it has to be being done for the truly novice cook to get a handle (so to speak) on things.
"Too many steps".................ooooohhhh, such hardship! What a sad nation of soft fat pu$$ies.
STFU. The issue is that there are too many superfluous steps, too much complication, too much "Alton Brown" factor.
"Too much complication".
You simply are beyond stupid. And a soft, oozing pu$$y to boot.
Way too many steps, and way too much effort, all for a side-dish?
Wow, so many steps. I make home fries on the stove top, raw potatoes sliced about 1/3 inch, heat oil throw in the potatoes let them cook. do not stir you only have to flip them once. Add onions, green pepper or whatever else you want after flipping... salt, pepper... to taste. Easy easy easy.
....YOU...are the one that comes closest – almost perfect!
(...the "perfect" way shall remain a secret...a secret only those that truly interest themselves in making fries at home without deep frying, eventually discover....but I still don't know where one can buy Kennebec potatoes, but I prefer Russet anyway...)
Love, love, love ATK!
DITTO!